November 24, 2011 2:49 pm

Seattle Seahawks receiver Sidney Rice missed his second straight practice with a knee issue, making his availability for Sunday uncertain.

However, Seattle head coach Pete Carroll told reporters on Wednesday that he planned on resting his big-play receiver this week.

Rice has not missed a game this season since missing the first two games with a shoulder injury, but has been on the injury report the past two weeks with foot, and now a knee issue.

If Rice cannot go, Golden Tate could be on track to get his first start, although Ben Obomanu (ankle/knee) was a limited participant in practice on Thursday.

Others who did not practice include defensive tackle Alan Branch (ankle) and cornerback Byron Maxwell (ankle). If Branch can’t go, then Clinton McDonald would get the nod at defensive tackle next to Brandon Mebane.

The Seahawks announced that offensive tackle James Carpenter and John Moffitt both had successful knee surgeries on Wednesday at Seattle surgery center, performed by team doctors Ed Khalfayan and Mike McAdam.

Carpenter suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee last week. And Moffitt suffered a torn medial collateral ligament and posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee against Baltimore.

Seattle had a vacant roster spot after placing Carpenter on the injured reserve list, and brought back offensive tackle Allen Barbre. The 27-year-old Missouri Southern State product has seven career starts, and was on the active roster for three games last year while with Seattle.

Barbre was with Miami for training camp and was released on Sept. 6. He was a fourth round selection by Green Bay in the 2007 draft.

After practice, Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley was asked about the success of his big buys up front in stopping the run, and how that philosophy developed.

“Our philosophy here right from the start, right when Pete got here was to get big up front,” he said. “Make sure we do everything we can to stop the run, shore up things and guys understanding their fits, and take it from there.”

Bradley also talked about how teams are trying to attack Seattle’s big defensive front.

“We’re seeing a lot of what you call cut plays, where they’re trying to put a guy off the line of scrimmage and bring him back across for cuts, like the Y (tight end) cuts and the slides we call them,” Bradley said. “And that’s just really testing the linebackers on their fits.

“And a lot of teams will just try to get us running. They’ll try to stretch us out and see if they can get any cutback lanes. I think the size, and the way we play our techniques we’re really heavy into the linemen. And that keeps us from really running and stretching, and to do that you’ve got to have size.”

Bradley said that teams also are trying to attack the perimeter in the run game, which Dallas had some success with. Bradley said a key for Seattle’s defense in stopping that is setting the edge and making sure no one gets outside of containment.

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Peter King: “I’m starting to like the Seahawks a little bit. I really am. How do you not like Red Bryant and Earl Thomas? I see the defense stifling Washington’s comatose weaponry here and Seattle getting to 5-6. That’s something I never would have figured a month ago.”

The Giants, Eagles and Lions have some tough games remaining. If the Seahawks win their remaining games and finish 10-6, I’ll be surprised if they don’t grab the last wildcard spot. Even 9-7 might do it, but not likely.

We’re going to be up and down for a while still I think. I can’t see us winning out, as much as I’d enjoy that. This was a growing year, and I think we’re seeing the development we’d hoped, so that’s terrific. But, I wouldn’t get carried away thinking playoffs and winning out. Highly unlikely IMO, even though I’d be delighted if we did that.

If the Hawks can get through this stretch of 3 games at home with no major inj plus 3 wins I’ll be considerably more optimistic in their ability to get to the playoffs. If they do lose one of these next 3 then I see no real chance at them making it.

OK, so it is early after a day of eating too much and drinking too much so forgive me for rambling in advance. But I do have some questions/comments:

I watched the Harbaugh Bowl (bore) and I noticed a few things.

First off, @BobbyK….Alex Smith is useless. YOu have been correct all along. How that team is at 9-2 with him as QB I will never understand (defense, yes)

2nd, I know most on here want a franchise QB in the draft but in my opinion it is dangerous to trade picks, trade up, etc. to pay millions to a player who may not translate well to the NFL. Risk with QB’s scares me but as a long time Hawks fan (i’m just 38 yrs old so i remember the good times in the 80’s and the nightmares of the 90’s) our QB picks by many different GM’s and coaches have not worked out so well.

So, after watching last nights Ravens/9ers game I came away with a few thoughts. (although i despise both teams, Harbaugh Bros. included.) Seattle has a decent LB core but man wouldn’t it be great to have a beast like a Ngata who can step in for Ray Lewis and just take the game over. Also, we do need a frickin hardcore rush the passer defensive lineman. Now, with the state of our OL (once again, dammit) i would say draft some depth at LB and DL and OL. Our secondary is gonna be scary next year if we can get pressure up front. SO, although I may be nuts for thinking this I say we go one more year with T-Jack and maybe find someone in the draft in the later rounds or sign a free agent so we don’t have to give up draft picks to get the guys we need on offense and especially 2 or 3 beasts of LB’s and DL’s to really scare teams. Having a top 5 defense in this league would make it easy for the game manager type QB offense Petey seems to like so well. I am in no way a football expert at all, I’d put myself in the realm of Forrest Gump when it comes to this kind of analysis and needs stuff. (“I’m not a smart man, Jen-nay but I know what a football is…” so Duke, Chuck Easton, Pabuwal, BobbyK, and any of the rest of you smart football guys can straighten me out on what the hell I think I am thinking it would be much appreciated. I learn more and more from you fellers everyday I read the blog…. (and believe me, I tried playing football when i was young but I was 6’1″ and 135lbs. Got hit once by a lineman on a kick off and was almost broken in half….that ended my playing days so I turned to golf, beer and guitars. I still suck at golf and guitar but I sure got good at the beer skills. HA! hope you all had a helluva THanksgiving…..Go Hawks, 3 home games coming up….maybe we can be 7-6 after this??? I can dream, right…or am I right now?

I agree, Chuck. 8-8 or better would be great. Even if they made the playoffs, I wouldn’t expect them to win any games, especially since they wouldn’t be at home. Hopefully they’ll win the division next year and the Super Bowl in 2013.

There are many ways to build a football team. I think we could go back to most Super Bowl winning teams and point to a big flaw. I remember the Saints a few years ago didn’t have good LBs. The Giants got hot at the right time. The Colts couldn’t stop the run. The Steeler OL wasn’t all that good the year they beat AZ. The list goes on and on.

Almost every Super Bowl champion has probably won the Super Bowl even though they have had a bad unit. Trent Dilfer is the poster child for a worthless QB winning the big one. Timmay! Smith could be the poster child for a team with a worthless RB winning it all. As mentioned about the Steeler OL several years back. Basically, I think every team that has won all the marbles has mostly had an area of the team where they won the Super Bowl in spite of that unit (or position), not because of it. And, yes, I know it’s a total team effort, too.

When I look at bad QBs like Jackson and Alex Smith I see players whose teams are winning games in spite of them, not because of them (sure, they are their teams best option, but I don’t think that’s anything to brag about). Sure, they’ll make a play here and there (afterall, they are NFL players) but consistently they are not the reason their teams are winning.

I know Alex Smith sucks but he did get hammered pretty good last night too (9 sacks, the terrible Ginn drop to end the game… not that that would have really mattered in the grand scheme of things). Still, enough people have seen him long enough to know he sucks.

Sure, you can win without a good QB, but I don’t think that continuing on with bad QB play is a smart way to build your franchise. Sooner or later (for me it’s SOONER, not Oklahoma) you need to get this piece of the puzzle to consistently win. I also think it’s foolish to build the perfect team and then add the QB (our new QB must start next year, IMO). When your team is busy being perfect, your QB is going to be busy making inexperienced mistakes and screwing the rest of the team over. Then when your QB is at the top of his game, the rest of the team may be missing a guy here or there where they aren’t as good as they used to be (hurt, free agent replaced by young player, etc.).

I don’t know. The more I think about it, the more mad I get that we didn’t resign Matt to help us win NOW, as that’s apparently the goal of Mr. Happy (which is fine). If we had resigned him, I think all of us would be expecting play-offs right now, instead of hoping. I know the OL was a huge question mark and they were worried about him getting hurt behind it, but why not sign Jackson to be the back-up and probably know that he’ll play when Matt is hurt? That seems as if it would have made the most sense. You can’t tell me that we don’t have room under the cap for BOTH players, but I guess Paul Allen must need to save that money as opposed to investing in a division winning season (that’s funny sarcasm). And there’s no way anyone can tell me that Jackson would have been signed for more money or given a starting job anywhere else in the NFL had he not been guaranteed the starting gig here. Even with Hasselbeck resigned, him signing here would have been his best chance at $4 million per season AND top back-up to a QB with injuries (so he would have probably gotten a chance to play during the season, even though he hasn’t missed a start yet for Tennessee). If we had Matt and T-Jack, we would only be spending about $4 million more total for the QB position than we are now (as Whitehurst and his $4 million wouldn’t have been around). I don’t know, this scenario really makes me frustrated that we threw a season away (still slight hope for the play-offs though).

I don’t have a clue as to how the qb position will play out next year, because one of the last things I thought would happen this year was the signing of Jackson, and not drafting a qb.
Every qb takes a beating now and then, and Hasselbeck has held up fairly well this year. Better then Jackson so far.

It is frustrating to see just about every position get better on this team except the most important one.
Mabey it was the only way to get Rice? Who knows? But, imo, we would be around 7-3 right now with Hasselbeck.

I loved Hass and wanted him re-signed. But with Hass at QB, I don’t think the Seahawks would be much better. Perhaps they’d be 5-5, but not 6-4. Hass at his best was miles ahead of T-Jack, but the Hass of the last three years was only slightly better than T-Jack. Granted, he could have a great game now and then (like against the Saints in the playoffs), but he could also have some terrible ones.

I don’t think T-Jack is a bad quarterback. He’s showed enough potential (and so has Portis) that the Seahawks shouldn’t reach for a QB in the draft. Getting a pass-rushing LB or DE is more important, in my opinion. If they can get a QB who will be a definite improvement, then I’m all for it. But I don’t think they need to be desperate.

7-3 with Hass, GeorgiaHawk? Which games do you think they’ve have won? I presume you’re going to say Browns, Bengals and Falcons. I’ll give you the Browns, but the other two, I’m not so sure. And T-Jack didn’t play against the Browns.

Bobby, Im not having the continued TJack is worthless rubbish, sure he isnt a great QB but he is a game manager and is doing what needs to be done this year to let us improve on both sides of the ball… He has had some good games and some bad ones as have a lot of QB’s and as did Hass last year. You must have your rose tinted glasses on and just watch re runs of the Saints game because boy matt in about half a dozen games last year was horrible, Charlie horrible.
Now as ive said Tjack isnt great but looking at other teams and who they have at QB im getting close to double figures who I would put behind TJack especially for what this team wants and needs.
As well as being that game manager, he never moans and in my eyes leads that team and most certainly has the players and importantly Pete onboard

So its getting a little tiresome to see every other post from you moaning or blearing about Tjack, Bobby youre better than that dude

Don’t care what blueprint we follow, BobbyK, as long as we win the Lombardi. I’ve been waiting a few decades for that. Still can’t get over how close we came in 2005. Almost 400 yards of offense. Damn refs.

I was just looking at the qb ratings and the top five are on teams that lead their divison. And the bottom five are on teams near or at the bottom of their division. That just shows how quality qb play will effect a teams success.

Take Pete’s “Win Now” mantra with a grain of salt. of course no team ever plays to lose but the roster churn points to the fact that win now takes a back seat to win forever.
It was a small comment that got over looked but even Pete admitted that the team was about a year ahead of where he thought they would be in the re build process. that’s some awesome news IMHO.

Oh and BTW. Suh has really turned out to be a douchebag of a player! no way in hell i would ever trade ET or Okung for him. goes to show what a crap shoot the draft is.
If Goodell doesn’t sit him for 3 games at least it will be BS!!!!

Good comments today by all! I think the 49ers and ravens both prove that if you build a great defense and o line/running game first, then you win with any decent quarterback. Carroll has the same mindset exactly. Of course,put a stellar quarterback
on top of that foundation and you have an elite team. But that quarterback is the hardest piece to find or predict.

Although TJack has not been as bad as I was expecting, what exactly will a young QB (Landry Jones!!!!!!) learn from him by sitting out a year watching his mediocre pla? Hawks should start a rookie QB next year.

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